Draft Proposal
America deems itself the land of the free, but in actuality that is not quite so. Throughout history, America has been the land of the free when convenient. Throughout American history people have been oppressed for their race, religion, gender, and many other things. African Americans have been forced into slavery for the first 100 years of American history. Native Americans have been forced out of their habitat. Women have had numerous disadvantages to fulfill their full potential. Even today, the first amendment right isn’t fully true. As people have been jailed and executed for simply comments. America hasn’t been quite the land of the free, and everyone has felt it. It is counterintuitive that the so-called land of the free isn’t quite free.
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Counterintuitive 
GreenEggs, this is intriguing and honors the spirit of counterintuitivity. You’ll need a plan to avoid producing a “survey” paper that simply lists the constituents deprived of their freedom. A compelling narrative that explains how individuals have either surrendered their freedoms or had them stolen will be much stronger than a checklist.
I remember as a youth reading a humorous example of how little everyone works, based on average behaviors of 40-hour-a-week fulltime workers. Out of 24 hours, we sleep work 8 hours, sleep 8 hours and have 8 hours “off” for our leisure. Therefore, out of 365 days, we work 122, sleep 122 days, and have 121 days for leisure. But we take off weekends (104 days) and national holidays (10 days), which leaves just 7 days for a one-week vacation. Except on leap years, when we can take off Labor Day to celebrate how much we’ve been working.
Systematically eliminating the groups you want to identify as “unfree,” until you’re left with just one person who might conceivably be free would be an entertaining way to structure your argument. Of course your topic is serious, but you might keep more readers along for the duration with a light touch.
Any luck finding academic sources?
I think it can be proven that we are all not totally free. I think the light touch idea would keep the reader more interested. In just the news this yea there have been plenty examples of not having the freedom that I may be able to use in the essay. Another investing thing is that land of the free idea, ties in with the all men are created equal. That of course is in the constitution, which one of the authors(Thomas Jefferson) was a slave owner which is interesting. I found this interesting academic article- Racism and Sexual Oppression in Anglo-America
The article goes into detail about how most groups have been oppressed.
I also found another recent article I found interesting on how all americans have lost their freedoms.- http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/09/americans-have-lost-our-rights.html
Thank you for the feedback and ideas,they are greatly appreciated.
You’re clearly “working it,” GreenEggs. You also appear to be enjoying the process. Be careful, when you follow leads, to resist the temptation to further expand your already broad topic. The question of whether “all men are created equal” sounds closely related, but so are other principles of democratic government that might prove to be distractions.
Your washingtonblog is extremely valuable but not at all academic. Use it at will, but primarily as an aid to generate ideas and topics for consideration. Most of the links the author provides are to his own blog posts or the blogs of others. They CAN be trustworthy, but they’re not the best sources for academic papers. Good stuff for brainstorming though; I suspect you’ll return to it often.
Thank you, I will definitely keep an eye on the legitimacy of each source.
Ran across this while I was following up with another student and thought I’d share it. You’ve probably seen it.
https://jonathanturley.org/2012/01/15/10-reasons-the-u-s-is-no-longer-the-land-of-the-free/
The author says the article was published in the Washington Post, but I didn’t find it there. It was picked up by Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-turley/constitutional-rights_b_1213234.html
Quoting Turley doesn’t amount to “research” to prove your claims, but it does provide a neat little checklist of ideas to pursue.
Turley made some interesting and intriguing points, thank you for sharing, Professor. Every extra article helps.
Glad you found it useful, GreenEggs.
GreenEggs, you haven’t left yourself an assignment here. Reply, please.
I need to find five additional academic sources
Yessir, although I would be satisfied if you clearly identified your first five and provided strong Purposeful Summaries for them. Read them carefully, decide what they prove OF VALUE to a hypothesis you’re investigating, and summarize that for me.
I will do that, thank you professor.